“I learned very early on to reel everything in. Sometimes you just shouldn’t do anything because the camera sees everything – like the smallest flick of your eye and it catches it and it reads as something.

“The performances I enjoy are the ones that are hard to read or ambiguous or left-of-centre because it makes you look closer and that’s what humans are like – quite mysterious creatures, hard to pinpoint.”

She also noted, “I have sly eyes. When I was in school they always said, ‘Emily can never be elected Head Girl because you never know what she’s thinking.”[imdb.com]

Fate in our lives

In an interview about The Adjustment Bureau, Blunt (and co-star Matt Damon) were asked about any experiences of fate in their own lives.

Blunt commented: “Do you mean like has anything happened to us that seemed very fatalistic? I have one story, which is pretty cool that I remember. I didn’t get into this very amazing school that my sister went to. And I wanted to be just like my sister.

“It’s this school called Westminster in London, which is fiercely competitive. And she gets in because she’s a brainiac. And I don’t because I’m obviously not.

“And so I basically remember at sixteen just being devastated and my life was over. And this is so sad. And I felt so inferior that I hadn’t gotten in. so I went to my second choice school, which had a good drama department. Previously hadn’t considered acting.

“But I did a play through my school that went to the Edinburgh festival. I got an agent. He’s still my agent…And if I’d gone to Westminster I wouldn’t be doing this job. Guaranteed. So I think, like, that was weird. And at the time it seems devastating and so sad but really it was, obviously, meant to happen.”

In another interview article, Blunt admits, “It would just haunt me. I never thought I’d be able to sit and talk to someone like I’m talking to you right now.”

The article says, “Then a teacher suggested acting lessons, and by age 18, Blunt was starring opposite Judi Dench in Peter Hall’s London production of The Royal Family. (When she pretended to be someone else, Blunt says, “something lifted in me.”)

“Today, at 24, she’s one of those poised, silver-tongued Englishwomen who seems at ease in almost any situation, whether it’s playing the catty assistant of Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada or lobbying for a chance to star as the young Queen Victoria in a new film produced by Martin Scorsese.”

About Douglas Eby

Douglas Eby (M.A./Psychology) is author of the Talent Development Resources series of sites including High Ability; Highly Sensitive and Creative; The Creative Mind and others - which provide "Information and inspiration to enhance creativity and personal development." Also see Résumé.

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The Creative Mind is part of a series of sites by Douglas Eby - providing information and inspiration for exploring your creativity and personal development.